Limiting Liability Makes Buildings Look Better

Big, old, hulking factories -- some of the loneliest figures of the late '80s -- are getting some companionship in the form of new owners and inhabitants.

One of Mack Trucks Inc.'s old plants now houses furniture while another is home to a computer software designer and a figurine maker. Lehigh Structural Steel's old plant hosts a fabricator, a tire warehouser and an equipment sales company. And some Bethlehem Steel sites have given way to high-tech gadgetry.

And more may be coming.

Some state lawmakers are pushing legislation to steer development toward old buildings, and away from green fields. It's a push that has garnered support from preservationists who don't like big warehouses on cornfields and from urban boosters who don't like seeing city jobs flee to the suburbs.

The key is limiting the environmental liability on the old properties, many of which had been subjected to everything from toxic chemicals to dirty oil drums.

Rather than risk dredging up something dangerous or being held accountable for problems that surface later, developers have gone the easy route and landed in the country rather than the city.

Under the proposed law, developers won't be responsible for problems they didn't cause. (Under current law, all owners -- past and present -- are liable.)

Also, it would set aside some money to pay for some cleanups and take off the hook lenders who finance the properties.

Same goes for economic development agencies that buy property and transfer it to developers. They'd no longer be putting themselves at risk.

Bud Hackett, who markets Allentown and Lehigh County for the Industrial Development Corp. of Lehigh County, hopes such a law would help make use of such buildings as the old Ross Bicycle plant in LVIP II, which has been empty for 10 years because no wants to risk liability.